Paying It Forward

Sep 30, 2016 08:44AM
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By Linda Sechrist

Jo Vaccarino

Just as a homing pigeon is born with an innate ability to always orient itself towards home, Jo Vaccarino, owner of Be Well Natural Living Clinic and Be Well Digital Infrared Thermal Imaging, in Naples, came into this world with an innate ability that points her in the direction of creating ways to “pay it forward”.

Vaccarino moved to Naples with her husband in incremental phases. By 2013, the couple had permanently settled in. “My husband had an auto repair business, so we went back and forth like typical snowbirds until I moved my thermography business here full-time,” says Vaccarino, who has never let a history of injuries and health issues weigh her down. Instead, she rose to every challenge and used each one as a means to learn about her body and how to heal and maintain it with natural medicine and modalities.

One of Vaccarino’s doctors who helped her overcome her health problems became her personal hero and pointed her in the direction of thermography. “Dr. Jon Bowersox didn’t just prescribe, he sorted out mysteries and taught lifestyle changes. He had an amazing gift for getting the body to do the healing and used both homeopathy and Oriental medicine in his DO practice,” says Vaccarino.

During her early 30s, Bowersox recommended thermography for correlation with Vaccarino’s suspicious mammogram. “That first thermal scan probably saved my life. The thermographer noticed inflammation over my left carotid artery and suggested a thermal report on it. This led to the discovery that I had over 70 percent blockage in my carotid artery. With no symptoms and no reason for suspicion, it would have likely been discovered in a crisis, such as a stroke,” she says.

By age 28, Vaccarino had fractured three vertebrae, encountered whiplash twice and was continuing with an abundance of stress, bad habits and a terrible diet. “As a single mom in my early 20s, I was lucky to get three hours of sleep a night, and during the day, I was smoking, drinking diet soda and grabbing junk food on the run. I was beginning to pay more attention to my health in my mid 20s after I took a part-time job as an occupational therapy (OT) assistant, but I never got a chance to finish the OT program,” she explains.

You can turn around and find a better path and walk it at your own pace. Find a path where you’ll meet others who share the same goals—to live a better life, enjoy wellness and longevity and be full of happiness and vitality. ~Jo Vaccarino

When Vaccarino lost her father and stepfather to cancer, and then her husband had a heart attack at far too young an age, that proved to be a major turning point. “I decided it was time to make changes and focus on our health. I wanted to give my son the world, but what I realized was, if I didn’t take care of myself, how could I be there for my family?” she says.

In 2009 Vaccarino decided to focus on thermography and other types of testing. She plans to pursue a degree as a doctor of Oriental medicine in the near future. “Doctors rarely have time to cover the essentials of healthy living with their patients. They don’t have time to teach food combining, better food selection or avoidance of hidden toxins. This is where I want to focus,” clarifies Vaccarino.

Fortunate to have many amazing professionals that nurtured her interest, Vaccarino wants people to know that even if they start down the wrong path, they don’t have to keep going. “You can turn around and find a better path and walk it at your own pace. Find a path where you’ll meet others who share the same goals—to live a better life, enjoy wellness and longevity and be full of happiness and vitality. It’s a journey that will require you to pay attention to your thoughts, your feelings and your habits. But if you don’t pay attention to those things, who will?” she posits.

Vaccarino’s intention with her clinic is to pay forward what others have given to her—the gift of knowledge, experience and examples. To date, Be Well Natural Living Clinic offers thermography, hypnotherapy, health coaching, Access Consciousness, Foundation Training for sustainable pain relief, Reiki, fitness instruction, physical therapy and advanced stress relief, the services of an esthetician and Free Friday informational classes, which are open to the public.